I’m home in Perth over Christmas, enjoying the fantastic Summer weather here.

Despite some good news, there’s been some terrible news.

We’ve had a few close calls over the last few days, as bushfires came close to engulfing residential areas South of Perth. How close?

These pictures were taken from my Canon IXUS – the zoom’s only 3x optical, which might give you an idea on how close this came.

The majority of the photos are taken standing on Colchester Avenue, looking North to Thomas Road. Across Thomas Road is the Spectacles.

Google Map

One of the helicopters trying to prevent the fire jumping across Thomas Road into Windsor Hills.

The fire was in the Spectre’s National Park, across Thomas road. The flames can be seen here, well above house height.

Concerned local residents watch to see whether the fire has the ability to jump across Thomas Road from (a wide dual carriage way).

At this point the wind changed and the fire jumped Thomas Road. Residents restreat to a safe distance.

Where people stood watching less than 5 minutes earlier, there’s now fire. Concerned home owner’s are trying to hose down what they can as the helicopters make a renewed effort to hold it back.

This time looking to the right side, you can see how close this is getting to the first row of houses.

There were 2 blue and 1 yellow choppers making constant runs against the fire. This fire “front” was one of many at the time, stretching the Fire Service thin on Christmas Eve!

This pilot was amazing! Prior to releasing, he came in as low as he could, jockeying for position as he looked out of his window.

Yes, he was that low and that close.

I can’t explain well enough how great these guys, and the WA Fire Service have been.

As far as I’m aware, not one house in Windsor Hills was lost on Christmas Eve. The helicopters and Fire Service battled the fire all day, and on and off over the next few days.

[Update 6th Jan]
Fixed the 404 error occuring when the images where clicked on. Should be fine now :)

OK, so this has nothing to do with technology.

Some friends have their first single released today, and I just want to help them spread the word. The group is called “The Latch” .

The details and music video can be found here.

Purchase your copy online from the following…
iTunes.com
HMV.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
or you can text ‘MIRACLE’ to 82822

I found that Amazon doesn’t appear to have the single online yet. HMV doesn’t support Firefox, so I was unable to browse the site from my Ubuntu laptop, and I had the same problem with iTunes as I don’t have the software installed.

After sending a text to 82822, you are sent a link to the TuneTribe website to download your MP3. This cost me £1.50 to get the single.

At the website I discovered the best way was to buy the CD (3 tracks) for £2.37. The single was £0.79 without the SMS transaction.

It’s a great song and I hope the guys do well.

If you want more of the Latch, they have a presence on MySpace here (be warned it has sound!), and their recent webcast at the Berlin Studios here.

[Update 30 Oct]
Now a search of Amazon.co.uk revels the CD here, but it’s not available currently.